The 5 K’s spot win for Habs and …

Team captain Saku Koivu, Alex Kovalev, The Kostityn brothers and Tom Kostopolous shine for the Habs in game 1 in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.

The Canadiens got off to a pretty good start, but was luck was not on their side, a few goal post, and open net, but could not get one in. The Flyers where able to capitalise on the bad bounces from the Canadiens defensemen. First, Patrice Brisebois tried to intercept a pass and deflected it in back of Carey Price. A few minutes later, an another mistake caused the second Flyers goal. The Flyers went in to the dressing room with a 2-0 lead.

The Canadiens got their legs back and took advantage of the Flyers lack of speed on defense and Andrei Kostityn scored on a missed pass from brother Sergei. The Habs number 46 had missed on a penalty shot. On contraversial goal by Alex Kovalev while short-handed.

In the third, in the opening seconds, Carey Price mishandled a shot, and bounced of Joffrey Lupul skate and landed behind the Habs goaltender. With a minute and nine seconds to go in the game, Flyers take a penalty, Coach Carbonneau calls a time out and pulls Carey Price in favour of a sixth player on the powerplay. Alex Kovalev flips a wrist shot past Flyers goaltender, Martin Biron, to tie things up with 29 seconds left.

In the early stages of the overtime, with less than a minute played, journeyman, Tom Kostopolous ticks one in behind Biron and wins it for the Habs to the joy of the Full house fans in the Bell Centre.

Alex Kovalev and Tom Kostopolous got Stars one and three, and also honoured as NHL.com’s stars two and three.

Habs and Flyers return for game two tomorrow night at 7 pm at the Bell Centre on RDS or CBC’s Hockey night in Canada.

After shinning in the series against the Minnesota Wild, Jose Theodore had a nightmare evening last night in game 1 of the Detroit and Colorado semi-final. After seeing his team take a 1-0 lead, he was victim of four unanswered Detroit goals, before being pulled by Colorado coach Joel Quenneville for Peter Budaj, who gave up nothing. Colorado got a lift and stormed towards a comeback, but fell short a goal. Will Quenneville go back with Theodore or will he chance it with Budaj ? We shall find out tomorrow afternoon at 3pm in Detroit, catch the game on NBC or on TSN.

The other two conference semi-finals start tonight in Pittsburgh and in San Jose.

Stanley Cup up for grabs

Last year's Stanley Cup champions, the Anaheim Ducks were eliminated last night by the Dallas Stars. The Ducks elimination should really come as no surprise, as the team struggled in the first half of the season. The Niedermayer and Selanne lack of decision on their possiblement retirements created a distraction, and the team never really blended together. The speculation and the rumour mill will run wild now, will Burke stay in Anaheim, or take on a new challenge ? Will it be Vancouver or will he go east to Toronto? The same can be said about Niedermayer and Selanne. Stay tuned folks.

Habs and Boston play the decisif game 7 tonight in Montreal. For the young Habs this is turning out to be one learning experience in playoff hockey. This is the second time in four years that theboth teams play a game 7. In 2004, The Habs had shutout the Bruins 2-0, Richard Zednick was the hero in that game. Guy Carbonneau will be looking at the guys with game 7 experience to calme the younger guys down. This could turn out to be Carey Price's biggest game in his young career. Price seems to shine in tight situations, he will be put to the test for sure.

Detroit, Colorado, Pittsburgh, New York and Dallas will be watching the outcomes in the remaining series to find out who their next opponents will be.

Should be interesting folks, stay tuned.

The Real season begins tonight

Well after close to 7 months of regular season play, the real season begins tonight, as the first games of the playoffs take place. In the East, the return series between the Ottawa Senators and the Pittsburgh Penguins.Last year, The Sens made the Penguins look like amateurs, but this year the roles could reversed. The Ottawa team struggled all thru the second half of the season, they changed coach, and now they are without three key players that helped in last spring’s cup run. We will find out if they can get their focus back. It will be interesting to see how they react. The Penguins on the other hand, played well while Crosby was out with an injury, and did not miss a beat. As it has been proven in the past, games 1,3 and 5 are the pivotal games in a series, the team that wins those games, win the series. For Ottawa to have any chance at winning this match up with Pittsburgh, they must split the first two, if not, they could be in big trouble in games 3 and 4 in Ottawa, as the hill maybe to steep to go up, and time is never on your side when your down in a series. This goes also for all series, and all teams, win game 1. It puts pressure on the other team to get back in the series and gives you momemtum.

Predictions for round one:

East

Montreal in 5

Piitsburgh in 6

Washington in 7

New York Rangers in 7

West

Detroit in 5

Calgary in 7

Minnesota in 6

Anaheim in 5

Last night on Hockey night in Canada’s preview show, Ron Maclean sat with legendary coach, Scotty Bowman and went thru all the series in the hour long show. Scotty has a great memory, he had no notes or anything, knew everything he needed to know about key players and situations that arise during the playoffs. You can see the replay on CBC website.